1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet forming die and a sheet forming method. The present invention relates for example to a die and a method for forming a sheet by dividing a supplied molten resin into flows, and thereafter by joining the divided flows of the molten resin together.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a method for manufacturing a laminated film formed of a number of thermoplastic resin layers by co-extrusion lamination using a multi-manifold die. By this method, the film to be laminated is expanded to a standard width, and thereafter the two side edge portions of the film are coated in the die with a single resin. For this method, there has been known a multi-manifold die including side plates which are provided on its two respective sides. In addition, the multi-manifold die includes a resin passage and a resin discharge port which are drilled in each of the side plates. The resin passage branches from, and communicates with, one of its resin inflow ports. The resin discharge port is configured to discharge the resin for coating the two side edge portions of the laminated film, as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Brochure, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei. 6-91719, for instance.
In the method employing the conventional multi-manifold die, the film is expanded to the standard width and then the two side edge portions of the film are encapsulated in the die with the resin. Accordingly, this poses a problem in that the resin to coat the two side edge portions may not smoothly flow to join together with the film at the resin passage outlets (at locations where the resin flows to join together with the film expanded to the standard width), thereby making it difficult to finely control the flow rates of the flowing resin divided for coating the two side edge portions.